Surviving first year exams

At
UoN, we want to see you succeed in your exams and get the outcome you deserve,
without the added stress. You'll find handy hints for surviving your exams,
from early preparation to evaluating how you went.

Ideally, you should start preparing for your
exams on the first day of semester.

Read through your course outline when you start
your course. This will list your exam details, including if and when you will
be sitting it, and how much the exam will contribute to your overall grade.

Start taking lecture notes from your first
lecture. You can then turn these notes into comprehensive summaries throughout
your course. If your lecturer puts their notes or PowerPoint slides on UoNline
before the lecture, print them out no more than three slides per page so you
can add in your own notes.

Use your reading time wisely by carefully
reading, then re-reading each question.

Set time allocations for each question according
to how many marks a question is worth, so you don't run out of time. For
example, in a three hour exam, a question worth 10 per cent should take you
around 18 minutes.

If you answer a question in less than the
allocated time, but feel you have covered most points, move on.

Plan to finish the paper five minutes early to
go back and check your answers.

If you come across a question that you can't
answer at all, leave it and move on to the next question. You can always come
back to it at the end.

If you do run out of time, use point form to
summarise what you intended to write (it may earn you one or two extra marks).

Think like a marker. Markers might have hundreds
of exam papers to read. They will usually have a standardised marking scheme -
they are looking to allocate a set number of marks if you have mentioned
certain key words.

After the exam, it's time to relax with your
friends. Debrief over the exam, but try not to listen too much to what others
thought were the correct answers.

When your results are available, check to see if
this is consistent with what you thought you might get. If there is a huge
discrepancy, for example by a couple of grades or you unexpectedly failed, consider
applying for a remark or appealing
your final result.

If you do fail, it's not the end of the world;
instead, use it as a learning experience.

For more details on surviving exams, this excerpt is taken
from the book Surviving First Year Uni and is
available from UoN
libraries and as an e-book.